Ka Hsaw Wa, Co-Founder and Executive Director, is a member of the Karen ethnic nationality of Burma. He was one of the student leaders in the 1988 nation-wide student uprising for democracy and freedom, and has been a human rights activist since he fled Burma in 1988. As well as managing and directing the overall operations of EarthRights International, Ka Hsaw Wa coordinates a grassroots field staff that has successfully documented human rights and environmental abuses within Burma. The evidence collected has served as a cornerstone in the ground-breaking lawsuit against Unocal and in the decision of the International Labor Organization to pressure Burma’s brutal regime. Ka Hsaw Wa has been awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize, Reebok Human Rights Award, Whitley Fund for Nature/Sting and Trudie Styler Award for Human Rights and the Environment, the Conde Nast Environmental Award, and the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Emergent Leadership for his work in defense of human rights and the environment. Ka Hsaw Wa splits his time between the U.S. and Southeast Asia offices.
Chana Maung, Southeast Asia Office Director, has been with ERI since 1997, and is currently responsible for leading and overseeing all of ERI Southeast Asia’s program work, fact-finding and research activities. He also provides oversight for management issues, such as hiring and finances in Asia. Chana is a Karen man, who has worked for years to document forced labor, violence, economic and social rights violations in Burma. Chana has received training from the School for International Training in NGO management. He also has additional training in conflict resolution. Chana speaks Thai, Karen, Burmese, and English.
Katharine Redford, Esq., Co-Founder and US Office Director, is a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law, where she received the Robert F. Kennedy Award for Human Rights and Public Service. She is a member of the Massachusetts State Bar and served as counsel to plaintiffs in ERI's landmark case Doe v. Unocal. Katie received an Echoing Green Fellowship in 1995 to establish ERI, and since that time has split her time between ERI's Thailand and US offices. In addition to working on ERI's litigation and teaching at the EarthRights Schools, Katie currently serves as an adjunct professor of law at both UVA and the Washington College of Law at American University. She has published on various issues associated with human rights and corporate accountability, in addition to co-authoring ERI reports such as In Our Court, Shock and Law, and Total Denial Continues. In 2006, she was selected as an Ashoka Global Fellow. Katie has been profiled in Be Bold and Your America: Democracy's Local Heroes, and the award-winning documentary film Total Denial.
Marie Soveroski, Managing Director, lived and worked for 15 years in Europe, where she served as Director of the European Centre for Judges and Lawyers, the Luxembourg-based Antenna of the European Institute of Public Administration (EIPA), from 2001-2005. Prior to that she worked out of EIPA headquarters in Maastricht (NL) on legal and capacity building projects in the countries in transition in Central, Southeastern and Eastern Europe. Her focus and passion has been environmental law and protection, as well as human rights issues, which she has pursued both as a lawyer and as an activist. She has an LLM in International and Comparative Law, which she earned at the Vrije Universiteit in Brussels (B). She earned her JD at Gonzaga University School of Law as a Thomas More Scholar, a full-tuition scholarship program for persons pursuing a career in law in the public interst. She has Bachelors degrees in Biology and Environmental Resource Management. She has both US and Dutch nationality.
Naing Htoo, Program Coordinator, is a Karen man and graduate from the EarthRights School. He has worked with ERI since 1998, coordinating ERI’s documentation on forced labor, particularly surrounding development projects in Burma. Naing Htoo also conducts advocacy with international financial institutions on Burma. His research and fact-finding have reached key policymakers at the International Labour Organization, the United Nations, and various governments around the world. Naing Htoo speaks Skaw Karen, Thai, Burmese and English.
Nang Aung, Administrative Associate, joined ERI as an Administrative Associate in July 2004. She previously worked with Shan Women's Action Network as a volunteer on a women's education project and also worked for some time with the Shan School (SSSNY) as their Office Manager. Nang Aung completed a Women and Development Course run by the Women's League of Burma in 2003. She speaks Shan, Thai, English, Burmese and Chinese (Mandarin).
Matthew F. Smith, Project Coordinator, received a B.A. from Le Moyne College in Political Science and Philosophy and a M.A. from Columbia University in Human Rights Studies and Religion. Matthew conducts research and international advocacy for corporate accountability in the extractive industries. Before joining ERI he worked with Speak Truth to Power, a division of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice & Human Rights. He has experience in community organizing in New York City and in social work in Mobile, Alabama.
Alek Nomi, Program Coordinator, is a graduate of School of Oriental and African Studies from the University of London. Alek has conducted research for ERI about Chinese multinational corporations involved in Burma’s energy sector. He currently coordinates ERI’s work in China and South America, and speaks English, Chinese and Spanish.
Marty Bergoffen, Mekong Legal Coordinator, is an environmental attorney licensed in Oregon and California, and also holds an MS in Physics. A committed deep ecologist, he has worked for several small NGO's throughout the United States, protecting public lands and endangered species from rapacious industrial extraction. He first came to Thailand in 1996, working with Environment Desk and refugees from Burma to halt logging, mining and other earth rights violations. He has lived in Chiang Mai since 2005, again helping local people to confront Chinese, Thai and Burmese companies and government agencies to prevent ill-advised Salween River dams, Jatropha plantations and other destructive "development" projects, while documenting and reporting on the copious biodiversity found in eastern Burma. He loves gardening, biking and ultimate, and speaks beginning Thai.
Raa Hoo Lar, Program Coordinator, Burma Alumni is responsible for overall coordination of the Burma Alumni program. He is a member of Pa-O ethnic group and has worked with the Pa-O Youth Organization and Ethnic Cooperation for Human Rights and Environment since 2001. He graduated the EarthRights School in 2002 and worked as a training coordinator at the Mae Tao Clinic for three years in Mae Sot. He has conducted several workshops and trainings along the Thai-Burma border on issues such as human rights, environment, and social change. He speaks Pa-O, Burmese, English, and Thai.
(Name Withheld*), Executive Assistant
Khin Nanda, Burma Program Training Coordinator, assists with coordinating the ERS training program, helps to create a positive, cooperative learning environment and assists participants with translation. She co-facilitates classes on environmental issues and conflict transformation. Khin Nanda is a Shan alumna of the EarthRights School, and she has also received advanced training of trainers as well as participated in a conflict resolution short-course at the School for International Training (SIT) in Vermont in the United States. She interned with ERI's Burma Project for six months before joining the EarthRights School in late 2001.
Tong Teng, Administrative Associate, is a member of the Karen ethnic group and has worked at the school since 2001. His responsibilities have grown significantly with time, and now include accounting, buildings and grounds maintenance and coordinating overall logistics. He took a four-month computer class in 2003 in preparation for overseeing our computerized accounting. Tong Teng speaks Skaw Karen, Po Karen, Thai, Burmese, and English.
Sabrina Gyorvary, Training Director, is responsible for overall coordination of EarthRights International's training programs. Sabrina has worked in refugee camps in Thailand, and with refugee and immigrant communities in the US. She holds an undergraduate degree in Asian Studies from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and MA in International Studies from the University of Oregon. She comes to ERI after a number of years with the Chiang Mai University Women’s Studies Center, where she developed curriculum and organized exposure trips and seminars on human rights, environmental justice and the impacts of globalization on women in the Mekong region. Sabrina speaks fluent Thai, Lao, and English, and basic Khmer and Mandarin.
Yaowalak Srikhampa (Tin), Mekong Program Associate, has been a leader in her local youth group campaigning to protect her home town and the environment for over ten years. Most recently, she worked with Southeast Asia Rivers Network (SEARIN) on the Pak Moon Dam in Ubon Ratchathanee, the Rasi Salai Dam in Sisaket Province and the Kaeng Sue Ten Dam in Phrae Province. In 2003, she also coordinated the 2003 World Dam-Affected People's meeting in Northern Thailand. She is currently completing her Master's thesis on Gender, Local Knowledge, and Community Food Security under Globalization at Chiang Mai University. Tin speaks Thai and English.
Paiboon Hengsuwan (Heng), Mekong School Coordinator, has experience working with the Association to Promote the Rights and Freedoms of Citizens in Northern Thailand, building awareness of local communities’ rights under Thai law in areas of conflict over access to natural resources. He later worked with the Wildlife Fund of Thailand (WFT) to organize anti-dam campaigns with dam-affected communities nationwide. Paiboon is currently writing a doctoral thesis on the negative impacts of dams on the Salween River and other SPDC (Burmese military regime) projects in Eastern Burma, and local peoples' resistance. He has travelled extensively in the region, studying the impacts of foreign investment on communities and local peoples' movements for greater social and environmental justice.
Si Phoung, Mekong Alumni Program Associate, is herself an ERSM alumna. As a student in our class of 2006, she conducted research on the ADB's role in funding the Tasang Dam power transmission line near her hometown in Shan State, Burma. Upon graduation, she served as an intern at the NGO Forum on the ADB in Manila, where she lobbied at ADB headquarters around the bank's involvement in Burma, and worked with other ERSM alumni to organize a Global Day of Action against the Salween dams. She has worked with the ImagesAsia Environmental Desk, and is a member of the Salween Watch Coalition and the Shan Sapawa Environmental Organization, which focus on Salween dam issues.
Hannah (Surname Withheld*), Training Coordinator, EarthRights School Burma is responsible for teaching classes with the ERS training program and assisting in the coordination of the Burma School. She has a B.A. in Politics from Oberlin College and a Master of Science in Global Politics from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Before joining ERI she worked on youth organizing and immigrants' rights in the United States and England. She is also an experienced trainer and educator on topics including EFL, conflict resolution, and strategic campaigning. She speaks English, Spanish, and Japanese.
Nyine Tun, Training Associate, EarthRights School Burma is responsible for assisting with activities at ERSB. Prior to joining the ERI team, Nyine Tun was a 2006 graduate of the program and served as an intern supporting students needs inside and outside the classroom. He is a member of the Arakanese ethnic group and completed his first year study in Geography, at the University of Sittwe. He has worked for the Network for Environment and Economic Development and in 2007 he was nominated to be the Secretary of the EarthRights Student Union.
Marco Simons, Esq., Legal Director, is a graduate of Yale Law School, where he received the Robert L. Bernstein Fellowship in International Human Rights to work with EarthRights International. After law school, he clerked for the Honorable Dorothy Wright Nelson on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He then worked for Hadsell & Stormer, Inc., a Pasadena civil rights law firm, which is co-counsel with ERI on Doe v. Unocal and Bowoto v. Chevron. He also served as Communications Director for the campaign of Ro Khanna for U.S. Congress in California's 12th District, and has taught human rights law at Occidental College in Los Angeles. Marco holds an undergraduate degree in environmental science and, prior to law school, worked on developing educational materials on conservation biology. He is currently admitted to practice in California, Washington DC, and Washington state.
Richard L. Herz, Esq., Litigation Coordinator, is a 1993 Order of the Coif graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law, where he served on the Virginia Law Review. In 1994, he clerked for the Hon. Raymond A. Jackson, U.S. District Judge for the Eastern District of Virginia. Rick was the 1997-1998 Natural Resources Law Institute Fellow at Northwestern School of Law of Lewis and Clark College, where he wrote"Litigating Environmental Abuses Under the Alien Tort Claims Act: A Practical Assessment" , an article about suing multinational corporations for environmental abuses under the Alien Tort Claims Act. He is a member of the New York State Bar. At ERI, Rick directs our work on cases against multinational corporations for international human rights and environmental abuses. As such he is co-counsel for the plaintiffs in Doe v. Unocal, Bowoto v. Chevron, Sahu v. Union Carbide and Wiwa v. Royal Dutch Petroleum. He has also filed amicus briefs in various U.S. Circuit and District courts on behalf of NGOs and law professors in important human rights cases, and he advises human rights and environmental activists and lawyers on international law.
Jonathan Kaufman, Staff Attorney, holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School (2006) and a Master in Public Affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton (2008). He has worked on human rights and land rights issues at both the international and local level. Jonathan has been a member of the legal team on two cases in front of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, represented dozens of clients in front of public housing authorities and disability benefits review boards, and researched and written on human rights and indigenous issues in Guyana, Tanzania, and Taiwan. In 2002-2003, after graduating from Yale University with both a B.A. and M.A. in Chinese, Jonathan was a Fulbright Scholar in Taiwan. He speaks Mandarin Chinese, French, and Spanish.
Paul Donowitz, Esq., Campaign Director, is a 2003 graduate of Columbia University Law School, where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar along with serving on the Human Rights Law Review and in the Human Rights Clinic. He then worked as a Senior Policy Analyst at the Service Employees International Union, focusing on new market organizing in the public sector. He has served as national coordinator for an international human rights organization. Other experience includes work for Social Accountability International, a labor standard setting and accreditation organization, and experience conducting research and training in India with the human rights groups. Paul holds an undergraduate degree in South Asian Studies and Sociology from University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Maggie Schuppert, Development Coordinator, is primarily responsible for coordinating ERI's grant submissions, foundation relations and proposal writing. Most recently, she was residing in San Francisco where she was the Development Coordinator at the Global Citizen Center, a non-profit initiative of Global Exchange, which works to promote our transition to a Green Economy. Prior to this, Maggie was at the Social Science Research Council's Program on Global Security and Cooperation, where she provided support to the Program's various projects including the administration of an international fellowship program aimed at nurturing innovative research and collaboration between academics and practitioners around the issues of human security. She holds a BSFS from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service and an MA in International Relations from the University of Essex (UK) where she focused her studies on human and environmental rights and normative political theory.
Brad Weikel, Web & Communications Coordinator, is experienced in print, online & multimedia communications, as well as software engineering. In his previous position, he was the Managing Editor for gnovis, Georgetown University's peer-reviewed Journal of Communication, Culture & Technology (CCT). Prior to that, he was webmaster for the Middle East Institute. He holds a BS in Computer Science from the University of Washington and an MA in Communication, Culture & Technology from Georgetown University, where he studied emerging social media systems and collaborative production and wrote a thesis on procedural tropes in software development practices.
Victoria Wangai, Administrative Assistant has vast experience in all aspects of Business Management and is currently responsible for ERI's donor database and other administrative duties. Prior to joining ERI, she lived and worked in Nairobi, Kenya, where she held key positions in a couple of organizations over the years. Victoria speaks English, Swahili and Taita.
* For security reasons, some ERI staff members have elected to withhold their names or surnames from our website.
